Want To Work In Movies? Check Out This New Girl-Power Production Company!

You may be aware that the Sundance Film Festival is going on right now, though you may not be aware it is my dream to attend it. Chilly weather, lots of independent movies, celebs galore – it basically sounds awesome.

Also pretty awesome is some news that came out of the festival about a new production company called Tangerine Entertainment. The company, which has been started by two female producers, is planning to take on projects for female directors. By taking on a whole variety of genres, these works will hopefully appeal to all types of people and raise the visibility of women in film.

Why the need for this type of company? Well, take a couple seconds to try and list some famous movie directors you know. Done? Well, my guess is that there probably aren’t too many women on your list, or at the very least you were able to think of more men.

Unfortunately that’s kind of the current reality of the business – in talking about Tangerine Entertainment, Movieline referenced some kind of bummer facts about women and movie-making. For example, a recent study looked at the top 250 money-making movies from last year, and only 9 percent of them had female directors.

Those of you who want to work in movies in whatever capacity, I think that this is a really promising piece of news for you. Though it can be disheartening to look at some of the numbers about how many women comprise the film industry, the most important thing is not to give up on your goals.

Clearly there are people out there (me included!) that know that there are extremely talented and passionate women who want to work in film. Even just commissioning studies to look into the gender gap and new initiatives like Tangerine Entertainment are all a step in a great direction. That same study I mentioned earlier has been tracking the film industry for years, and it offered a silver lining regarding some improvements for women – for example, the number of female-directed movies last year was actually a 4 percent jump up from the 2011 figures. Let’s keep those numbers climbing!

I went to a communications school for journalism, but a lot of my friends did video production which meant I had the opportunity to go to a number of screenings of student work. Seriously, the stuff they made was astounding. I’d love if some of my female peers had more opportunities once they entered the professional world to get more audiences to see their creations and show that female directors produce work just as important to the cinema world.

Tangerine Entertainment is definitely going to be a name that I jot down. I don’t really have any intention of becoming a director myself, but if I can support other women AND fulfill my love of watching movies, then that sounds like a best-of-both-worlds type of plan to me!

Do you want to work in the film industry? Who are some of your favorite film directors? Tell us in the comments!